Shri S. A. Dange : Substitute in Kerala, Tamil Nad, West Bengal, Bihar.
Shri Y. B. Chavan : I wish you well very well; you have your Government and I wish you well. I have no doubt about it. But what is this? Is this some thing that you are going to substitute.
Therefore, what I say is this. I appeal to the people through this House What is the result, the sum-total of the elections of 1967? That possibly you are trying to destroy something, but we are not trying to substitute or reconstruct something. Dr. Lohia’s speech was something on the same lines, a negative line, this substitute line. He made rather an unfortunate reference to the late Prime Minister Nehru, with reference to a foreign exchange account in London or somewhere. He also made mention of the then Finance Minister and the present Finance Minister, Shri Morarji Desai. Shri Morarji Desai had never visited any bank nor checked any accounts. There was no necessity of doing it. It was a completely false statement.
Then about Panditji’s account, I think sometime before, this information may have been given, but I would like to give certain information now about it. Panditji had royalty account with his publisher and literary agent in London from the 1936. All the royalties due to him on his books from the foreign publishers were credited to his account. As in 1947, Panditji had 3,864 and the dues and other accruals since then have been repatriated to India. The monies were repatriated to India as and when required by him. The question of rules, etc. or regulations on foreign exchange came into existence after Independence, and immediately after that the whole accounting procedure was subjected to regulations as existed from time to time. So, there was no question of having any very large amount. Naturally, Panditji was not merely the Prime Minister of this country; he was not merely the leader of humanity and was accepted as a thinker in the world. Crores of people in the country wanted to know how Panditji thought, how he wrote, how he spoke and reacted. Therefore, his writings and speeches were looked at with some respect as we Indians were looking at. And therefore his books were sold in different parts of the world. His publisher had naturally some credits but they were completely subject to regulations, the foreign exchange regulations.
Why I mentioned it is this : this is an attitude of pathological obsession to certain persons and personalities. It is rather very tragic. It is wrong to have this obsession; it is a very tragic thing for the man concerned. I would request Dr. Lohia to realise this. We all have regard for him; he may talk of A or B or C. But we still have regard for him. Why think in terms of trying to do damage, do damage to the reputation of one big man?
Dr. Lohia again made mention of our present Prime Minister. He made that rather unfortunate, may I say, indecent reference to the necklace. The hon. Member, Shri Dange made a reference to the necklace, may be his move was a tactical one. I do not know. (Interruption)
